Obama Says He ‘Wouldn’t Have Been President’ Without Harry Reid’s Support in Final Letter to Late Senator

Barack Obama says he “wouldn’t have been president” without the “encouragement and support” of former Nevada senator Harry Reid, who died on Tuesday at the age of 82.

The quote was included in Obama’s final letter to Reid, which the two-term POTUS shared publicly “in lieu of a statement” regarding his friend’s death. “When Harry Reid was nearing the end, his wife Landra asked some of us to share letters that she could read to him,” Obama explained.

In the letter, Obama said the world “is better” because of Reid’s decades-long presence in U.S. politics.

“Here’s what I want you to know,” Obama wrote. “You were a great leader in the Senate, and early on you were more generous to me than I had any right to expect. I wouldn’t have been president had it not been for your encouragement and support, and I wouldn’t have got most of what I got done without your skill and determination.”

See Obama’s letter in full below.

Per the Associated Press, funeral arrangement plans for the former U.S. Senate majority leader will be announced in the coming days. Earlier this month, Reid shared an extended statement in reaction to the McCarran International Airport in Nevada being renamed the Harry Reid International Airport.

“I thank the people of Nevada for letting me serve,” Reid said at the time. “It has been the greatest privilege of my life.”

In recent years, Reid has remained a crucial force among ongoing UAP research efforts. Other familiar names from the larger community, including To The Stars Academy of Arts & Science alumni Luis “Lue” Elizondo and Christopher K. Mellon, shared tribute messages to Reid on Tuesday night.